Place: Reviews & Ratings

Reviews by mltobin:

3.58/5 rDev +7.5%vibe: 3 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4

The Nomad is a fairly easy walk or short cab ride from Downtown Milwaukee. Local Wisconsin beers like Oso, Furthermore, New Glarus can be found here. As well as regionals like Bells and FFF. They also serve a fair amount of BMC, PBR, etc and have hard booze. One of their things is showing soccer from European countries on the TVs, so if you have a friend visiting from Poland or the U.K., this could be a good bet. Prices are reasonable and staff is pretty helpful, although sometimes trying to do their best with large crowds and 1 bartender at hand. (553 characters)

I feel that I'm quite the tolerant restaurant and pub patron--much more so than many of the friends with whom I go out regularly. Perhaps it's because I've worked in the food and beverage service industries, and I know how hard it can be sometimes to always provide a good experience. That being said, I have very little understanding and patience when it comes to bartenders or servers showing arrogance or condescension toward their guests. And, sadly, Nomad is a bar where both seem to be quite common--in the staff as well as the patrons.

I've been to this bar three times in the last two years, always hoping that it will be a better experience. (It's important for me to note that I've been there during peak and off peak hours.) The staff themselves have been curt at best, and outright rude at worst. I have never felt welcome at this bar...tolerated, but not welcome. Granted, when things get really busy, the place is so cramped that it's almost impossible to get service. As others have stated, there's a real sense that if you're not one of the hip kids, you're not really worth the time. Really not the crowd that I enjoy being around when I'm out for drinks; and don't even think you'll be able to hold a normal conversation if you're inside when it's busy.

What I can say in praise of Nomad is that it has a good selection of beers on tap (highlights are Bell's Two Hearted, Three Floyds Pride n Joy, Great Lakes Erie Monster, and Delirium Tremens) and bottled beers (Alpha King, Lagunitas IPA, Southern Tier Hop Sun, and Duvel). The decor is also pretty fun, with plenty of vintage beer cans, soccer paraphernalia, and lots of other oddities to look at on the walls. But when considering the kind of regular crowd that frequents this bar into the overall atmosphere, it ceases to be a draw. With prices that are higher than you'll find at better bars in the area, this is certainly not a bar for everyone. (1,924 characters)

I'll be honest right off the bat here, I can't be sure about the prices. I came to this place with Paul (the rep) and Larry Bell from Bell's after their event at Ray's just a bit back. I only had Bell's and they were comped. I assume the prices are comparable if not a bit higher than most Milwaukee venues.

With that said, the place had a cool atmosphere (I ignored the other people there that seem to plague everyone else's review of the place). Small and intimate with low level lighting and dark wood. Lots of nick-knacks adorn the walls including some interesting African wooden masks. European football (aka Soccer) was on the TVs scattered about.

Upstairs was also small and intimate with another selection of taps. The beers weren't anything out of the ordinary for a Milwaukee bar sporting craft taps, but the selection was well-rounded for a variety of styles.

Service could have been padded with Larry Bell there, but one of the other guys talking to us was the owner. I suppose I shouldn't comment on this either way really. Another visit might rectify that, but I don't really see the point of going back there honestly. It's not a bad joint from what I experienced, it's just nothing special at all. (1,216 characters)

Nomad pretty much rolls to its own tune. Been that way for years. We're on Brady St., deal with it.

Very small place, but some decent stuff to look at, good setup, decent list of beer. The good stuff pretty much ends there.

Overpriced, service depends on if you have the look. Depending on if I spent money to look like the service, depends on how fast I get my service. No insight from service about anything. Meh. Everyone seems to be pissed off in there, but in a passive aggressive way. You can frequently hear very oversimplified political discussions like you're at a coffee shop on the East Side. Ugh. (611 characters)

I love this place. The $3 Oskar Blues cans on Saturday nights is reason enough to go. It doesn't have the best variety, but they are constantly bringing new stuff in and shaking things up, so there is always something new to be had. I love the crowd, and I love the atmosphere. Its small and kind of has a corner bar feel, which is why I like it - its a corner bar but with good beer. My only beef with the place is the service. Most of the girls that work there as well as a couple of the guys just don't know their beer. Or they're wasted. (541 characters)

Went there on a Saturday evening before it was too busy and we found a section of the bar to claim. Kind of smokey and a smattering of hipsters and yuppies, but that's what the Nomad is in Minneapolis (except we got rid of the smoking). Beers in the right glasses but not the most fresh. Staff is cool and distant, in no rush, whatever. Enough to choose from on tap and in bottles, it's not like I'm going to be spending the whole evening there, I just need a few good ones to choose from. I'd go back if the peeps insist, but otherwise I'll suggest places that I haven't yet tried. (582 characters)

If there's such a thing as a ratio of "beer intelligence" to "good beer selection," this place must have the lowest ratio I've ever seen. The physical atmosphere is great, a classic pub. I take the rugby and soccer on the TV's with tongue firmly planted in cheek -- they're going for that "wordly" feeling, and though no-one watches it, it's at least different. The crowd is eclectic -- everything from local students and others just starting out, all the way to yuppies in love (I could have done without the two pretentious types making kissy faces at each other at the bar). The beer selection saves the place, although it's hard to see how that line-up got into a place where so few employees or patrons seem to know anything about beer. (741 characters)

I don't like this bar. It has some nice beers, a clientele that seems to mock the idea of better beers, and an air that is both snobby and inauthentic.

Allow me to explain.

The place has some nice beers on both tap and in bottle, with about 25 bottles and 15 taps. Yet yesterday when I visited, the clientele was all drinking either Stella Artois or PBR from cans. The first time I visited Nomad a few years ago, I asked for an American beer and was informed that "we're a world bar; we don't serve bad American beer." Since then, the Nomad's selection has expanded to include American beers, and they have a number of nice American micros now. However, I've never forgotten the beer ignorance I experienced during my first visit. Not all is changed for the better though. Yesterday when a friend and I approached the bar to check out the taps, the guy whose shoulder we were looking over looked at us as if we were the biggest social rejects for being more interested in the beer than how cool we came off...and perhaps for costing him cool points due to our proximity to him. There was rugby or Australian rules football on some TVs (LEIC was beating BRI 23-14 in the 7th phase), which no one was following and was there (I assume) to support the "world bar" vibe.

This bar was also very smoky.

If you want to hang out and see and be seen on the Brady St scene, then maybe this is a place for you. If you want to relax and have a relaxing good-beer experience, go down Farwell to Comet Cafe, or up Prospect to Cafe Brucke. Both (they are very different from one another) offer a far better experience than Nomad. (1,627 characters)

I had to ascend a short flight of steps in order to enter this place and upon getting inside I realized that it was all angles. The marble-topped bar was at a left oblique, there was a slightly raised stage at a button-hook right and there were high tables and chairs along the right wall, as well as a small display of vintage cans. There were also some regular tables and chairs in the center of the space, but the whole design was pretty minimalist. My bartender, Chris, was an Aussie ex-pat.

They featured sixteen taps, including three Lakefront, one Bells, and one New Glarus. The rest were almost the same imports that I noted earlier I the day at County Clare. The bottles under the back bar were completely unworthy, but there was another cooler at the end of the bar, by the Womens washroom full of better, but not stellar, beers.

Given a choice, I preferred the Nomad in Minneapolis. (905 characters)

Very small bar with a world traveler theme. This place seems very foreign and isnt concerned with being a normal milwaukee bar. They play soccer games here for instance, which is a nice change of pace. The tap selection is alright. Lakefront brews a beer or two specifically for them. They also have a few nice bottle and taps. Last time I was there I had a two hearted on tap. Prices are in line with Brady Street bars. A nice bar in the summer as they have seating outside on the sidewalk if you dont mind drinking from plastic. A nice bar, but there are better on Brady. (573 characters)

Relatively small, yet popular, "world-traveler" themed bar located on trendy Brady Street on Milwaukee's East Side. African masks, bottles of beer and soccer jerseys adorn the walls. Small platform in the corner upfront is a stage for live music ranging from world beat to jazz. In summer tables are set up around the building to accommodate for sidewalk seating. Of course, this means beer served in plastic cups only for the outdoor crowd.

A good selection of local microbrews and imports are available on tap and in bottles. Service can be spotty with occasional long waits at the bar when the place is crowded. On a recent visit, it annoyed me that the bartender felt it was more important to stand at the end of the bar and chat with her friend, while taking her sweet-ass time to come over. (799 characters)